The Council of Ministers agreed last week to ‘take advantage’ of the time it’s going to take the airline industry to get back on its feet and ‘develop and improve the project’ for a second Lisbon airport at Montijo.
The plan – already fiercely contested by local councils, citizens groups and environmentalists – continues to be delayed.
No building work is expected to start next year. Indeed prime minister António Costa has already pledged that no work at all will go ahead until local councils come on board (click here).
But the GOP 2021 agenda (standing for Grandes Opções do Plano) is adamant that the airport in principle is still ‘fundamental’ for the economy.
Said a report by the GOP executive: “The recovery of aviation and return to the pre-Covid volume of passengers will take some time”. In fact, the time is for the moment ‘incalculable’ but the work needs to be done.
Meantime projects that will be going ahead in 2021 include 600 kms of improvements to national railways – “namely the Beira Alta line in the North, the Alentejan, Western and Algarve lines in the south”, as well as the conclusion of motorway connections with Spain, and the improvements to the EN125 in the Algarve, and Guadiana bridge.
